Skyping with the family made me realize that I should do a blog about how the holidays are celebrated here in Russia.

Well, firstly, Christmas is not celebrated on the 25th. Russians celebrate Christmas in conjunction with New Years, so it technically hasn't even happened yet!

For our Western Christmas celebration, we were invited to partake in a Christmas dinner by our friends. Our British friend and his beautiful wife had a small family get-together, and we were really touched that we were able to share in that. Having a surrogate family to celebrate holidays with when you're abroad always alleviates the home-sickness.

Before the start of dinner we all criss-crossed hands and pulled the gold poppers you can see on the table. Inside were little toys and Christmas-themed jokes. One of the toys was a tiny paper fish that tells your personality by the way that it moves (reacts to the heat) of your hand.

Here are some pictures of the amazing meal they cooked:

As for the real Russian celebration, it hasn't happened just yet. All I know for sure is that there should be a lot of food and alcohol. One particular Christmas dish is salad- I'm predicting HUGE salads made in enormous basins instead of bowls. Another tradition is that Russian families watch the movie Irony of Fate every year in the same way that we watch Love Actually or A Christmas Story.